The role of the human brain was to rationalize suffering.

The force with which he wanted it both ways made him grit his teeth. What kind of fool wanted it only one way?

I settled in with The Uninvited Guests thinking I knew what kind of Edwardian pleasures were in store: the fraught dinner party in an endangered, rambling house, the feuding family, the rich suitor, the disruptive visitors. The novel has all of those delightful things, but it also defied every one of my expectations. I saw none of it coming. I read it in one breathless sitting, and finished wanting to give it to everyone I know.

At the simplicity of the gesture, he felt a pang: the raw nerve of his loneliness exposed.

The role of the human brain was to rationalize suffering.

His heart felt dangerously full, for the first time in years. That dried-up battered organ, suddenly flush with love. It could kill him.

To be a kid is to be invisible and to listen, and to interpret things that aren't necessarily meant for you to hear--because how else do you find out about the world?